Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Fall Acorn Wreath Tutorial

The kids had way too much fun helping me collect the acorns, wood, and moss for this one!

You will need:

An oak tree, to gather acorns, moss, sticks, and leaves.

Heavy wire (a wire hanger would work)

Floral wire

Floral tape

Hot glue gun

Pliers

Hammer and nail

1. When gathering, make sure and grab more than you think you need! Grab quite a few sticks because these will be the base of the wreath. I searched for acorns with the caps still attached (in above picture on the left) for the main decorative work, but picked up many others as fillers (above on the right). I also collected extra caps to glue onto bare acorns later.

2. Make a ring with the heavy wire, sized as you like. Wrap the ring with floral tape. TIP: double or triple up the wire to make the ring more sturdy. I had to, as you will see, go back and make a stiffener for the wreath because my initial ring was to flimsy.

3. Make a few strings of acorns by turning them into beads. To do this, use a nail and hammer. Punch a hole in the acorn with the nail, remove the nail from the acorn.

String a piece of wire through the holes in the acorn.

4. Use floral wire to attach the gathered wood to the frame. You can also start to attach your acorn strings by winding the ends of the wire around the ring. The below picture is the front of the basic structure of my wreath.

The below picture is a back view.

5. If you find that your wreath seems too floppy, make another ring to size, very sturdy, and attach it to the back of your wreath with floral wire.

6. Use the moss you collected to fill in any spots where you can see the wire, and to add decorative elements. Attach the moss with hot glue.

7. Use the hot glue gun to attach any special acorns or other neat things you found. Also attach acorn caps to as many of the acorns on your strings as you like.

And there you have it!!! A unique, and rather inexpensive wreath. I always have wire and floral tape on hand, so it didn't cost me a thing! I highly recommend stocking your craft shelf with these items because the will greatly improve your capacity to create using foliage.